With the help of Steve N9UIB we were able to operate with 2 G5RV antennas. We had one station running psk and jt65 and another station running ssb.
The digital station was provided by KD9BIX and it is an Icom 7200 with a ldg auto tuner and connected to a G5RV inverted V antenna. The Antenna was provided by Wayne KE9P. The Coax was provided by Tom WA9YI.
Our SSB station was an alinco dx-sr8 with a MFJ manual tuner and was provided by Wayne AC9HP. The Antennna for the SSB station was a horizontal antenna provided by Steve KB9RDS and the coax was provided by Tabb Adams.
We used a motorola XPR-4550 using a J-Pole built by Terry Cashion and we able to make many contacts on the W9AMT repeater using the dmarc dmr network via the hoosier dmr repeater systems. Many thanks to Tony for making those repeaters available to scouting.
Although we setup and operated on a id880 for dstar, we stayed in analog and we able to make a contact on the W9WIN linked repeater system via the KB9SGN repeater in Indianapolis.
Friday was spent setting up radios and testing equipment. We encounted some RFI issues and fought those issues theough the weekend. This was part of why many of our digital contacts are on JT65. JT65 was able to operate smoothly regardless of the noise that was interfereing with RTTY and PSK.
With SSB and the noise blanker turned on the SSB radio was useable even though some noise crept theough.
During operations on Saturday the noise also got into the receive capabilities of our 2 meter operations.
The children where each able to build a 2 meter yagi antenna. The plans and material where provided by Chris KD9BIX and a special thanks for your support Chris.
Chris KB9BIX had his antenna analyzer and each antenna was checked and tested after the scouts built the antennas.
We had two soldering stations provided by Matt KD9EJR for antenna building and repair.
We had 3 troops participate, 5 scouts operate and 9 adults (8 Amateur radio operators) participate and help including Chris kd9bix, Matt kd9ejr, Tim kd9dac, Tom wa9yi, Wayne KE9P, Barry KC9WMS, Steve N9UIB and Wayne ac9hp.
We want to thank the members of Hendricks County Amateur Radio Society members and everyone else who helped including all the other JOTA stations.
I consider this a success and look forward to our second annual JOTA station.
We made 55 total contacts and 25 of those were made by scouts.
44 contacts where digital and 6 of those where DMR digital voice.
